Sexual misconduct complaint leads to Northwestern protest

Northwestern University students protest how the school handles complaints of sexual misconduct against faculty. (Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune)

Northwestern University students protest how the school handles complaints of sexual misconduct against faculty. (Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune)

Naheed RajwaniTribune reporter

Dozens of Northwestern University students marched across campus Tuesday to protest how the school handles complaints of sexual misconduct against faculty.

The students had planned a sit-in and walkout at a class taught by a philosophy professor who was recently sued by a student who accused him of sexually attacking her two years ago. But after finding out the class was canceled, the students walked somberly to the office of the dean of the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. Some held signs saying, “No more victims” and “We will not be silenced.”

The students sought to speak with the dean, but university spokesman Alan Cubbage addressed the crowd instead.

“We very much do appreciate our students and our faculty and our staff raising these issues, and we believe very strongly that Northwestern is a place that is committed to responding fully to any kind of complaints regarding sexual harassment, regarding sexual assault, and it is a place that very much values those things that are incorporated in Title IX,” Cubbage said.

The issue came to the forefront last month after a Northwestern student sued professor Peter Ludlow over allegations he got her drunk and sexually attacked her in 2012. She also filed a separate lawsuit against Northwestern, alleging the school mishandled her complaint about the professor.

An attorney for Ludlow has denied any inappropriate conduct on the professor's part. Northwestern has also denied wrongdoing, saying it conducted a thorough investigation of the student's complaint and swiftly disciplined the professor, including freezing his pay one school year and revoking his appointment to an endowed position.

Several students at Tuesday’s protest said they want Ludlow fired and called on university officials to create stronger punishments for future violations of the school’s sexual harassment policy.

“A bigger priority, even than this specific issue, is that we want to see a change in Northwestern policy,” Laura Whittenburg, a junior who helped organize the protest, told the crowd.

More than 1,000 students, faculty and alumni have signed an online petition since last week calling for improvements in how the school handles sexual misconduct allegations. The petition calls on the university to make the findings of its investigations public and to appoint an outside group to ensure the university handles the complaints consistently.

In an email to students, faculty and staff earlier Tuesday, Northwestern said it already meets many of the changes sought in the petition. The university, however, said it opposes the call for an independent group to oversee the complaint process, saying the school already has Title IX coordinators and campus resources for alleged victims of sexual violence.

In January Northwestern revised its policies on relationships between professors and students, prohibiting faculty and coaches from engaging in romantic, dating or sexual relationships with undergraduates.